Adbusters Magazine

Joe Chemo

Adbusters is a nonprofit media foundation based in Vancouver, Canada; the group publishes a print and online magazine that critiques consumer culture, politics, and media. According to the group’s Web site, Adbusters magazine seeks to inspire readers to “get mad about corporate disinformation, injustices in the global economy, and any industry that pollutes our physical or mental commons.” The group creates “spoof ads,” like the one below, to circulate their messages for various campaigns that focus on issues such as smoking, anorexia, and pollution. The following spoof ad features Joe Chemo, a character created by Scott Plous, a Wesleyan University psychology professor whose father had almost died from the effects of smoking. Plous wanted to spoof R. J. Reynolds’s Joe Camel character in order to more accurately depict the effects of smoking.

The text of the ad reads: “The Surgeon General warns that cigarettes are sold by corporations who don’t care if you live or die.”